PIF and RB Sports & Media

[McCormick]

18 minutes ago, Jordan said:

Announced they’re reducing investment outside of SA. 

They’ve been doing that anyway for the last 2 plus years. Their main focus has shifted to bringing more investment into the country.

 

Regarding NUFC, if they make us the no. 1 football club globally it would be the first time in PIF’s history that they’ve actually fulfilled their promise of making something the best in the world.

[McCormick]

Unless you want to count making the tallest flagpole in the world… and even that ended up about half the size it was supposed to be.

[jack j]

30 minutes ago, Jordan said:

Announced they’re reducing investment outside of SA. 

Link?

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, jack j said:

Link?

Leading story on the FT Behind the paywall though. 

[El Prontonise]

This has been known for ages.

[Ronson333]

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund plans to scale back the share of its international investments by about a third, drawing a line under the past decade’s multibillion-dollar global spending spree as it refocuses on the domestic economy. 

 

The Public Investment Fund, which has about $930bn worth of assets, said it intended to cut the proportion of funds invested overseas to between 18 and 20 per cent, down from 30 per cent. 

PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan told the Future Investment Initiative conference on Tuesday in Riyadh that initially most of the fund’s investments were domestic Saudi projects.

 

“But then [the proportion of international investments] increased from 2 per cent all the way up to 30 per cent,” he added. “Now our target is to bring it down to a range between 18 to 20 per cent.”

 

As the PIF comes under pressure to deliver returns and on its vast array of domestic commitments, it has been putting more conditions on mandates for fund managers, telling them it wants to see more investment in Saudi Arabia if it is going to commit to new funds.

 

The wealth fund has already sold down its stake in BlackRock, and disposed of its holdings in Carnival, the cruise liner company, and entertainment group Live Nation.

 

According to filings at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the PIF’s traded stocks in the US fell from about $35bn at the end of 2023 to $20.5bn on March 31, before stabilising in the second quarter at $20.6bn.

 

The PIF has been at the heart of a major plan launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from its dependence on oil revenues.

 

It had previously made waves with a string of high-profile deals, including pumping $45bn into SoftBank’s Vision Fund in 2016 and $20bn into a Blackstone infrastructure fund the following year.

 

The fund has also made splashy acquisitions including Newcastle United football club and bankrolled ventures such as the LIV Golf professional tour. 

 

Rumayyan said international investors who had previously sought funding from the PIF were also shifting their approach.

 

“We’re more focused on the domestic economy and we’ve been achieving and doing so many big things,” he said. Now, he said, there were more “calls for co-investments” with the PIF instead of “people who want us to invest or take our money”.

 

Rumayyan did not say when the PIF aims to meet its new target for international investments.

[Maggies]

As long as Saudi are awarded the World Cup in 2034 (they might have been already) then I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

[The College Dropout]

We are a small investment for them anyway (financially).  Which has its pros and cons.  

[SUPERTOON]

Doesn’t sound promising for us regarding sponsorships, not that they seem to be coming anyways.

 

Wonder if this has any impact on stadium plans.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 10:17 by SUPERTOON

[TRon]

8 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Doesn’t sound promising for us regarding sponsorships, not that they seem to be coming anyways.

 

 

NUFC was never really about making the money for them, it was about giving them a global presence, and they'll only get that if we are successful. I still think if the rules are changed whereby we can channel funds into the squad and building a CL team, the rest will follow. But that will only really be tested over the next phase of the Man City legal fall out.

[Keegans Export]

So they're going to be looking at 20% of $930bn rather than 30%? 

 

That's still $185bn, so enough to build 115 Mercedez-Benz Stadiums and still have a billion or so left over...

 

Football always sounds like an expensive business with tens of millions being flung around, but on a global scale it really isn't.

[Nepharite]

This is more to do with Disney and Uber than it is with us.